Street Fighter IV UK Review

A new challenger has entered the ring.

You've seen every screenshot, watched every trailer, prayed it would make it to console and rejoiced when Capcom duly obliged. The more enterprising of you may have even made the pilgrimage to the Trocadero in order to worship at the latest altar of pugilism - and you'd be forgiven that you now know all there is to know about the triumphant return of that most iconic of series in Street Fighter IV.

In many ways you'd be right; essentially, the home port of Street Fighter IV is the very definition of arcade perfect. The Street Fighter phenomenon is one that's so close to a whole generation's heart that it would be foolish to try and offer a definitive judgement on the new formula, the debate over whether jettisoning the hardcore baggage of the third game and its satellites and making a spiritual return to Street Fighter II unlikely to be resolved anytime soon. We will however say this – Street Fighter IV is the most engrossing one-on-one beat-'em-up we've ever played.

Fundamentally, this is the same rock, paper, Shoryuken mix that's familiar to anyone who's ever pulled off a quarter-circle on a D-pad in anger. There's no deformable armour, no huge weapons to clang opponents around the head with and no way of tearing a downed combatant's cheeks off at a fight's conclusion – this is one of the purest expressions of virtual sparring ever created.

Indeed, it's the accessibility of Street Fighter IV that's one of the game's greatest triumphs. By taking Street Fighter II as the basic template, the game's been opened up to the legions alienated by the series various detours down hardcore roads. More forgiving inputs significantly lower the barrier of entry for the less dextrous returning to the series – and for the first time in a life spent playing Street Fighter we can finally pull off Zangief's spinning piledriver with some level of consistency.

Gone are the parrying system and the multiple Super Arts of Street Fighter IV's numerical predecessor. Players now have one access to a single Super, though like most specials it's available in two flavours. Striking all three attack buttons when performing a special or Super with the EX gauge maxed out performs an Ultra, a high tier attack that serves as the climax to the heady drama of one of the game's bouts.

The visual style never tires - this game's likely to remain as appealing 17 years from now.

The return of the archetypal eight characters that defined Street Fighter II reinforces the link between Street Fighter IV and its 17-year-old predecessor, and another of the game's successes is its careful handling of their upgrade, as well as the successful introduction of a new cast of fighters. Shotokan fighters – practitioners of that holy trinity of Dragon Punch, fireball and Hurricane Kick - such as Ken, Ryu, Sakura and Akuma feel more distinct from each other than ever before, while the likes of Guile and Dhalsim make a successful return from their exile.

Most significant of the new additions is without doubt the focus system: holding down medium punch and kick together envelops the player in a swirl of heavily inked lines, allowing one incoming attack to be absorbed and turned back into a crippling blow, leaving the opposition prone to a quick-fire combo. It's a feature that's integrated seamlessly into the game's patchwork and sits well with the slower tempo of Street Fighter IV – a change in pace that may come as a shock to those who have been schooling themselves in the comparatively twitchy Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix in preparation, and putting paid to the misconception that this is a re-skinned Street Fighter II.